A conventional power distribution system usually includes a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system, a plurality of 4-way switch units and a plurality of laterals. Each 4-way switch unit is coupled between the SCADA system and multiple laterals, and each lateral is coupled to multiple loads. The SCADA system may control feeding of electrical power to the loads through the 4-way switches and the corresponding laterals, and continuously detect operation of each of the 4-way switch units. The SCADA system is able to identify one of the 4-way switch units to which a lateral that has a fault is coupled, in order to perform fault detection, isolation and restoration (FDIR) on the faulted lateral.
The FDIR process of the conventional power distribution system may have the following drawbacks:
1. The power distribution system is unable to promptly become aware of the occurrence of a fault and thus FDIR cannot be performed speedily: since each of the 4-way switch units is coupled to the SCADA system, the SCADA system must monitor operation of each of the 4-way switch unit in order to identify the 4-way switch unit coupled to the faulted lateral for subsequent manual execution of the FDIR on that lateral, thereby delaying completion of FDIR.
2. Complex program design: since each of the 4-way switch units and the laterals is directly detected and controlled by the SCADA system, program design for the SCADA system is rather complicated.